2004 Annual Report: A Focus on Real Estate Niches

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
2004 Annual Report: A Focus on Real Estate Niches

NAR Business Specialties lends critical mass to a variety of NAR constituencies by providing integrated services and management attention that these groups couldn’t afford separately. By consolidating management and communications functions, the Real Estate Buyers Agent Council (REBAC); REALTORS® Land Institute (RLI); Appraisal, Auction and Resort Area and Second Home Markets; and the Real Estate Professional Assistant now have access to staff and resources that they didn’t have before. The CourseCalendar.com, introduced in 2003, is an integral component of Business Specialties. The online calendar is a magnet for professionals looking for real estate education offerings. In 2004, this “education Multiple Listing Service” listed almost 1,400 NAR and affiliate course sessions, sessions that generated more than $1.1 million in nondues revenue for the sponsoring organizations.

Examples of NAR’s expanded niche services include:

REALTORS® Commercial Alliance. Composed of NAR’s commercial committee, subcommittees, forums, the RCA Advisory Board, Commercial Overlay Boards (COBs) and Commercial Structures (CSs), and the five NAR commercial affiliates (CCIM Institute, Counselors of Real Estate, Institute of Real Estate Management, REALTORS® Land Institute, and Society of Industrial and Office REALTORS®), RCA is dedicated to serving the unique needs of NAR’s commercial real estate members.

The quarterly RCA Report, and monthly Commercial INS e-newsletter inform and educate more than 45,000 commercial members about industry trends, best practices, and NAR’s legislative and regulatory initiatives. The RCA Web site contains valuable information to help commercial members conduct business more successfully. RCA task forces on license reciprocity, broker lien laws, and commercial CE credits, made significant progress in 2004, influencing the passage of state legislation and licensing regulatory agencies. The RCA assumed a leadership role in the industry effort to create commercial real estate data standards, which will help facilitate the development of Commercial Information Exchanges (CIEs).

Today, there are more than 45 REALTOR®-owned and/or-operated CIEs among the 30 COBs and 110 CSs around the country. In 2004, a special work group examined the appropriate role for NAR in creating a national CIE platform. All the pieces are now in place to move forward with this major initiative in 2005.

In 2004, the RCA Committee Work Group on tenant-in-Common (TIC) transactions examined this growing model of real estate investment and the challenging issues relating to its categorization as a security or real estate. The Work Group will continue to examine this matter with the goal of ensuring that REALTORS® can participate in TIC transactions and be compensated for their efforts.

RCA is a charter member of the Real Estate Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which provides timely e-mail updates from the federal government to NAR commercial members on terrorism threats to commercial property. RCA will continue to leverage NAR’s legislative and regulatory influence to achieve favorable public policy on issues such as terrorism insurance, the military base realignment and closure process, depreciation of leasehold and tenant improvements, and tax treatment of depreciation recapture.

James Marrelli, NAR's new vice president of commercial real estate, presided in September over the 2004 RCA Strategic Planning Session, which precipitated development of a new business plan with three central themes:

1. Organizing the field—To Identify commercial members and creating more Commercial Overlay Boards and Commercial Structures
2. Creating the “Voice for Commercial Real Estate”—To position NAR to the commercial industry, advocate for pubic policy issues, and provided a forum for industry-wide dialogue
3. Delivering the value proposition—To deliver core products, services, and technology to commercial members
Resort and Second Home Specialty. To better serve practitioners working in resort and second-home markets, NAR offers a number of resources: a resort home page at REALTOR.org; a Resort Area ListServe; resort and second-home data reports; a two-day educational course, “Second Home Markets and Resort Areas”; a “Find a Resort Specialist” member directory; national networking opportunities; and a Resort Symposium & Workshop. The symposium was developed specifically for members interested in resort and second-home markets. The next symposium is scheduled for Feb. 5-8, 2006, on the Big Island of Hawaii.
The Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council. In another record-breaking year, licensed course providers for REBAC provided ABR designation education to almost 12,000 REALTORS®, an increase in enrollment of almost 20 percent over 2003. In addition to classroom courses offered through some of the most respected real estate schools and franchises in the industry, REBAC courses also are offered through REALTOR® University and other online portals.

REBAC continues to provide educational opportunities even after members earn their designation. Members receive monthly print and weekly electronic newsletters, providing information on trends in buyer representation. Other member benefits directly address marketing and related business issues. REBAC promotes buyer representation in general—and the ABR specifically—to the public through a national advertising campaign, which includes radio spots on such special events as the Super Bowl and Grammy Awards. REBAC also distributes newspaper and radio stories nationally through a news syndicate.
REALTORS Land Institute. Reorganized in 2002, RLI experienced a one-third increase in membership rolls in 2004, reflecting a growing interest in the brokerage, leasing, management, and development of land. The Land 101 Course, first offered in 2003, has proven to be a popular introduction to this specialty and the first step towards earning the Accredited Land Consultant (ALC) designation, RLI’s standard of excellence. Additions and improvement to RLI's Web sites now draw even more online traffic—generating 2,000 requests per day—from both professionals and consumers looking for resources about land.
A World Leader. To ensure NAR members have access to international business, NAR works to educate REALTORS® about opportunities in their local markets. A record number of individuals (242)—both in the United States and abroad—in 2004 were awarded the Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS) designation, further growing the global network in which trained professionals can conduct business.

Through the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations, associations in 26 countries continue to work together to develop business, professional, and technical standards and to build trust among real estate professionals worldwide. November 2004 marked the one-year anniversary of the group's advertising service for distinctive properties, providing global exposure for listings with international appeal, and also the launch of a new Transnational Referral Certification course, designed to expand the practice of referral fees to a global scale. In the United States, only REALTORS® can use this and other services available from WorldProperties.com.

Since 1992, the International Real Property Foundation has enabled NAR leaders to share core values of professional real estate practice with the world. The foundation is funded primarily by the U.S. Agency for International Development, private foundations such as British Petroleum and Ford, REALTORS®, REALTOR® associations, and NAR. The common denominator among these contributors: They’re dedicated to the proposition that the surest way to establish and shore up democratic institutions is by improving standards of living, typically a by-product of secure real property ownership, which leads to strong market-driven economies.
Outreach to New and Existing Members. Membership outreach has been a strategic staple for NAR for several years. In 2004 NAR mailed more than 1 million residential and commercial membership reference guides with personalized membership ID cards to new and renewing members. Through focus groups and online surveys, REALTORS® have been integral in helping to shape the format and content of this comprehensive reference guide so that it’s valuable to all members, whether novice or experienced. Additionally, state and local REALTOR® associations again this year had the opportunity to include a customized message on the guide’s cover flap. Customization enables members to receive benefit information from all three levels of the REALTOR® organization.

NAR continues to send a welcome e-mail to new members. Once new members’ contact information is entered into the National REALTORS® Database System (NRDS), the system is programmed to automatically send an e-mail advising new members of their NRDS number and its varied uses, alerting them to the impending arrival of their membership guide, and explaining REALTOR.org and other NAR benefits.

NAR also makes an effort to meet with members face to face. In 2004 NAR attended more than 15 NAR, state, and franchise trade shows. Through this outreach, members learn firsthand about the benefits of membership: legislative and regulatory advocacy, the REALTOR® VIP® Alliance Program, NAR publications, the national Public Awareness Campaign, and other strategic NAR initiatives.